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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
SOLITUDE, by PHILIP HENRY SAVAGE Poet's Biography First Line: As one advances up the slow ascent Last Line: Shall see almost a forest. | |||
As one advances up the slow ascent Along the pathway in the woods, the trees Change aspect, nor alone in this, but change In stature and in power till Solitude Seems cut out of the ancient forest. Here Was Solitude! where man had lived of old, Loved, serving God, and built himself a home. Man smooths an acre on the rolling earth, Turns up the mould and reaps the gifts of God; Plucks down the apple from the tree, the tree From empire in the forest, builds a home; Turns for a bout among his brothers, wins A sister to his wife and gets an heir; And then as here in Solitude departs And leaves small mark behind. The place is rare In this high epic of the human life. Where wildness has been wilderness shall be, But give God time; and life is but a span, Nine inches, while before it and behind Stretches the garden of the cosmic gods; For after London, England shall be wild, And none can thaw the iceberg at the pole. In Solitude one sees the winding trace Of what has been a road, a block of stone Footworn, that lies along the dim pathway Before one old foundation; and the rest Is freaks of grass among the rising growth Of birch and maple that another year Shall see almost a forest. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...MORNING by PHILIP HENRY SAVAGE SILKWEED by PHILIP HENRY SAVAGE THE WILLOW by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON LESSER EPISTLES: TO A YOUNG LADY WITH SOME LAMPREYS by JOHN GAY DEATH STANDS ABOVE ME by WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR WHERE YOUR FEET GO by JOSEPH AUSLANDER MAY 30, 1893 by JOHN KENDRICK BANGS |
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